Through its 14 chapters, this book presents a first view of the different perspectives within the fragmented field of behaviour change. The first part presents a series of perspectives of behaviour ...
More

Through its 14 chapters, this book presents a first view of the different perspectives within the fragmented field of behaviour change. The first part presents a series of perspectives of behaviour change as it is currently researched and implemented. This includes an overview of theories of behaviour, of evaluation and intervention design, the various approaches to behaviour change policy and a review of both behavioural economics and social marketing. The second part presents a series of approaches which are more concerned with questioning underlying conditions in which problematic behaviours occur. The activities of commercial marketers are scrutinised, the ethics and efficacy of participatory approaches – without systemic change - are questioned, and theories of practice and whole-system approaches are offered as perspectives which lead to a more complete picture of ‘problem’ behaviours and how to change them. The book paints a picture of a field that is undoubtedly fragmented and subject to a series of forces, both internally and externally. It highlights the breadth of perspectives and does not seek to hide the conflicts between them. Rather, the book seeks to suggest the potential of transdisciplinary behaviour change and to pave the way for further innovative discussions across the field and the setting of a firm agenda for its future.Less

Published in print: 2016-02-26

Through its 14 chapters, this book presents a first view of the different perspectives within the fragmented field of behaviour change. The first part presents a series of perspectives of behaviour change as it is currently researched and implemented. This includes an overview of theories of behaviour, of evaluation and intervention design, the various approaches to behaviour change policy and a review of both behavioural economics and social marketing. The second part presents a series of approaches which are more concerned with questioning underlying conditions in which problematic behaviours occur. The activities of commercial marketers are scrutinised, the ethics and efficacy of participatory approaches – without systemic change - are questioned, and theories of practice and whole-system approaches are offered as perspectives which lead to a more complete picture of ‘problem’ behaviours and how to change them. The book paints a picture of a field that is undoubtedly fragmented and subject to a series of forces, both internally and externally. It highlights the breadth of perspectives and does not seek to hide the conflicts between them. Rather, the book seeks to suggest the potential of transdisciplinary behaviour change and to pave the way for further innovative discussions across the field and the setting of a firm agenda for its future.

This book offers a timely analysis of the impact of rapidly advancing knowledge about the brain, mind and behaviour on contemporary public policy and practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with ...
More

This book offers a timely analysis of the impact of rapidly advancing knowledge about the brain, mind and behaviour on contemporary public policy and practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with professionals in a range of social spheres including architecture and urban design, education, and the workplace, the book examines the global spread of policy strategies, UK based policy experiments and everyday practice informed by ‘brain culture’. It explores how neuroscientific, behavioural and psychological explanation have become increasingly influential in such fields, and examines their repercussions for governing citizens. Analysis of a neural turn in research, policy and practice is offered through the development of a geographical focus on behaviour, including the role of context, scale and situatedness in re-shaping political agency. The book provides a grounded critical commentary on the burgeoning field of social, cultural and political aspects of brain culture. It offers an alternative set of explanations for what matters in explaining why people behave in certain ways and how citizens’ behaviour could and should be governed.Less

Brain culture : Shaping policy through neuroscience

Jessica Pykett

Published in print: 2015-07-22

This book offers a timely analysis of the impact of rapidly advancing knowledge about the brain, mind and behaviour on contemporary public policy and practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with professionals in a range of social spheres including architecture and urban design, education, and the workplace, the book examines the global spread of policy strategies, UK based policy experiments and everyday practice informed by ‘brain culture’. It explores how neuroscientific, behavioural and psychological explanation have become increasingly influential in such fields, and examines their repercussions for governing citizens. Analysis of a neural turn in research, policy and practice is offered through the development of a geographical focus on behaviour, including the role of context, scale and situatedness in re-shaping political agency. The book provides a grounded critical commentary on the burgeoning field of social, cultural and political aspects of brain culture. It offers an alternative set of explanations for what matters in explaining why people behave in certain ways and how citizens’ behaviour could and should be governed.

Choice pervades our society: it is founded on political rights to choose and our economy of market choices, but we have now reached the point where choice is extended almost everywhere. This book ...
More

Choice pervades our society: it is founded on political rights to choose and our economy of market choices, but we have now reached the point where choice is extended almost everywhere. This book provides a critique of choice in contemporary society and policy, arguing that we can have too much of a good thing. And there are alternatives. In the first part, the book shows how choice works at a personal level, its demands, and how it can fail. By examining healthcare, education and pensions, it then explores the alternatives, such as provision. In the second part of the text the book reviews the impact of choice through the life cycle, in areas such as careers, relationships, fertility, retirement and death. The book considers whether this enhances or burdens our lives, and questions the assumption that more choice is always for the better.Less

Challenging choices : Ideology, consumerism and policy

Michael Clarke

Published in print: 2010-02-17

Choice pervades our society: it is founded on political rights to choose and our economy of market choices, but we have now reached the point where choice is extended almost everywhere. This book provides a critique of choice in contemporary society and policy, arguing that we can have too much of a good thing. And there are alternatives. In the first part, the book shows how choice works at a personal level, its demands, and how it can fail. By examining healthcare, education and pensions, it then explores the alternatives, such as provision. In the second part of the text the book reviews the impact of choice through the life cycle, in areas such as careers, relationships, fertility, retirement and death. The book considers whether this enhances or burdens our lives, and questions the assumption that more choice is always for the better.

The relationship between citizens and local decision makers is a long-standing policy pre-occupation and has often been the subject of debate by politicians across parties. Recent governments have ...
More

The relationship between citizens and local decision makers is a long-standing policy pre-occupation and has often been the subject of debate by politicians across parties. Recent governments have sought to empower, activate, and give responsibility to some citizens, while other groups have been abandoned or ignored. Drawing on extensive up-to-date empirical work by leading researchers in the field, this book aims to explain what debates about local governance mean for local people. Questions addressed include: what new demands are being made on citizens and why? Which citizens are affected and how have they responded? What difference do changing forms of local governance make to people's lives? The book explores governance and citizenship in relation to multiculturalism, economic migration, community cohesion, housing markets, neighbourhoods, faith organisations, behaviour change, and e-democracy, in order to establish a differentiated, contemporary view of the ways that citizens are constituted at the local level today.Less

Changing local governance, changing citizens

Published in print: 2009-10-14

The relationship between citizens and local decision makers is a long-standing policy pre-occupation and has often been the subject of debate by politicians across parties. Recent governments have sought to empower, activate, and give responsibility to some citizens, while other groups have been abandoned or ignored. Drawing on extensive up-to-date empirical work by leading researchers in the field, this book aims to explain what debates about local governance mean for local people. Questions addressed include: what new demands are being made on citizens and why? Which citizens are affected and how have they responded? What difference do changing forms of local governance make to people's lives? The book explores governance and citizenship in relation to multiculturalism, economic migration, community cohesion, housing markets, neighbourhoods, faith organisations, behaviour change, and e-democracy, in order to establish a differentiated, contemporary view of the ways that citizens are constituted at the local level today.

This book challenges existing stereotypes about the ‘consumer as chooser’. It shows how we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of consumers, examining their place and role as users of ...
More

This book challenges existing stereotypes about the ‘consumer as chooser’. It shows how we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of consumers, examining their place and role as users of public services. The analysis shows that there are many different ‘faces’ of the consumer and that it is not easy to categorise users in particular environments. Drawing on empirical research, the book critiques established assumptions surrounding citizenship and consumption. Choice may grab the policy headlines, but other essential values are revealed as important throughout the book. One issue concerns the ‘subjects’ of consumerism, or who it is that presents themselves when they come to use public services. Another concerns consumer ‘mechanisms’, or the ways that public services try to relate to these people. Bringing these issues together, with contributions from a range of leading researchers, the message is that today's public services must learn to cope with a differentiated public.Less

The consumer in public services : Choice, values and difference

Published in print: 2009-04-15

This book challenges existing stereotypes about the ‘consumer as chooser’. It shows how we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of consumers, examining their place and role as users of public services. The analysis shows that there are many different ‘faces’ of the consumer and that it is not easy to categorise users in particular environments. Drawing on empirical research, the book critiques established assumptions surrounding citizenship and consumption. Choice may grab the policy headlines, but other essential values are revealed as important throughout the book. One issue concerns the ‘subjects’ of consumerism, or who it is that presents themselves when they come to use public services. Another concerns consumer ‘mechanisms’, or the ways that public services try to relate to these people. Bringing these issues together, with contributions from a range of leading researchers, the message is that today's public services must learn to cope with a differentiated public.

This book tells the story of how the International Labour Organisation came in 2012 to recommend to all countries that they should establish a Social Protection Floor (SPF), containing basic social ...
More

This book tells the story of how the International Labour Organisation came in 2012 to recommend to all countries that they should establish a Social Protection Floor (SPF), containing basic social security guarantees that ensure that over the life cycle all in need could afford and have access to essential health care and income security. It is the story of how the concept of a “global social floor” was transformed from a term used by global social reformists at the turn of the century challenging neo-liberal globalization into a concrete global social policy measure. It covers the internal politics of one of the major UN international organizations, throwing light upon the respective roles of governments, employers and trade unions on the one hand, and the permanent Secretariat of the ILO on the other. It also describes the struggle to win other agencies in the ‘system’ of global social governance over to supporting this idea. It tells how the UN, the World Bank and the G20 all came to endorse the concept. More than a case study, the book sets out an analytical framework for understanding global social policy change and provides a critical assessment of the global social governance system.Less

Global social policy in the making : The foundations of the social protection floor

Bob Deacon

Published in print: 2013-07-03

This book tells the story of how the International Labour Organisation came in 2012 to recommend to all countries that they should establish a Social Protection Floor (SPF), containing basic social security guarantees that ensure that over the life cycle all in need could afford and have access to essential health care and income security. It is the story of how the concept of a “global social floor” was transformed from a term used by global social reformists at the turn of the century challenging neo-liberal globalization into a concrete global social policy measure. It covers the internal politics of one of the major UN international organizations, throwing light upon the respective roles of governments, employers and trade unions on the one hand, and the permanent Secretariat of the ILO on the other. It also describes the struggle to win other agencies in the ‘system’ of global social governance over to supporting this idea. It tells how the UN, the World Bank and the G20 all came to endorse the concept. More than a case study, the book sets out an analytical framework for understanding global social policy change and provides a critical assessment of the global social governance system.

This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the ...
More

This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the largely enforced settlement of the UK's Gypsy and Traveller populations into conventional housing. Despite the size of this settlement and a plethora of interest in the housing related experiences of other minority groups, this is the only in-depth study to address the settlement of Britain's formerly nomadic people. The material is presented thematically and explores routes into housing; lived experiences in ‘bricks and mortar’ social support mechanisms and adaptations to settlement. The qualitative material forms a compelling account of the gendered and generational articulations of these trends by examining community dynamics and how collective identities and community structures are constructed within housing. Second, the book examines social relations between housed Gypsies and Travellers and their (often poor and marginalized) ‘settled’ neighbours. This is the first investigation of the historical and contemporary manifestations of inter-group relations in a British context. Through comparative case studies the complex and contradictory nature of social relations on housing estates where Gypsies form an increasingly prominent population are examined. The book is an original and important sociological account of intergroup relations in low income areas. The empirical material is situated within its wider historical and policy framework, which allows fundamental questions concerning citizenship, diversity and inclusion in contemporary societies to be addressed.Less

Gypsies and Travellers in housing : The decline of Nomadism

David M. SmithMargaret Greenfields

Published in print: 2013-07-17

This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the largely enforced settlement of the UK's Gypsy and Traveller populations into conventional housing. Despite the size of this settlement and a plethora of interest in the housing related experiences of other minority groups, this is the only in-depth study to address the settlement of Britain's formerly nomadic people. The material is presented thematically and explores routes into housing; lived experiences in ‘bricks and mortar’ social support mechanisms and adaptations to settlement. The qualitative material forms a compelling account of the gendered and generational articulations of these trends by examining community dynamics and how collective identities and community structures are constructed within housing. Second, the book examines social relations between housed Gypsies and Travellers and their (often poor and marginalized) ‘settled’ neighbours. This is the first investigation of the historical and contemporary manifestations of inter-group relations in a British context. Through comparative case studies the complex and contradictory nature of social relations on housing estates where Gypsies form an increasingly prominent population are examined. The book is an original and important sociological account of intergroup relations in low income areas. The empirical material is situated within its wider historical and policy framework, which allows fundamental questions concerning citizenship, diversity and inclusion in contemporary societies to be addressed.

Locating localism explores the development of localism as a new mode of statecraft and its implications for the practice of citizenship in England. The book takes the long view of this new policy ...
More

Locating localism explores the development of localism as a new mode of statecraft and its implications for the practice of citizenship in England. The book takes the long view of this new policy development, positioning it in relation to the political geo-history of the British state. It highlights the challenges of the state devolving itself and the importance of citizens having the incentives and institutions needed to act. Drawing on original research into community organising, neighbourhood planning and the organisation of local government, the book highlights the importance of citizens having the civic infrastructure they need to engage in decision making on their own terms.Less

Locating Localism : Statecraft, Citizenship and Democracy

Jane Wills

Published in print: 2016-12-07

Locating localism explores the development of localism as a new mode of statecraft and its implications for the practice of citizenship in England. The book takes the long view of this new policy development, positioning it in relation to the political geo-history of the British state. It highlights the challenges of the state devolving itself and the importance of citizens having the incentives and institutions needed to act. Drawing on original research into community organising, neighbourhood planning and the organisation of local government, the book highlights the importance of citizens having the civic infrastructure they need to engage in decision making on their own terms.

Whether mental health problems should be viewed as disabilities is a pressing concern, especially since the inclusion of psychosocial disability in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with ...
More

Whether mental health problems should be viewed as disabilities is a pressing concern, especially since the inclusion of psychosocial disability in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This book explores the challenges of applying disability theory and policy, including the social model of disability, to madness, mental illness and distress. It brings together leading scholars and activists from Europe, North America, Australia and India, to explore the relationship between madness, distress and disability and enhance our collective understanding of the issues.Less

Madness, distress and the politics of disablement

Published in print: 2015-06-16

Whether mental health problems should be viewed as disabilities is a pressing concern, especially since the inclusion of psychosocial disability in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This book explores the challenges of applying disability theory and policy, including the social model of disability, to madness, mental illness and distress. It brings together leading scholars and activists from Europe, North America, Australia and India, to explore the relationship between madness, distress and disability and enhance our collective understanding of the issues.

A Citizen's Income (sometimes called a Basic Income, a Universal Grant, a Social Dividend, or a Universal Benefit) is an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual as a right of ...
More

A Citizen's Income (sometimes called a Basic Income, a Universal Grant, a Social Dividend, or a Universal Benefit) is an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual as a right of citizenship. To replace some of the UK current tax system and much of the benefits system with a Citizen's Income would offer important positive benefits for society and the economy. Means-tested benefits are withdrawn as earnings rise, but a Citizen's Income would not be, thus making it easier for individuals and households to increase their net income. Current means-tested benefits pay less to a couple than to two individuals, thus imposing difficult decisions and intrusive investigations on claimants, whereas a Citizen's Income, because paid to each individual, would not interfere with people's relationships. The book employs thought-experiments to introduce a Citizen's Income, offers historical context, asks why some reform proposals succeed and some fail, and explores different ways of implementing a Citizen's Income. Existing universal benefits and recent pilot projects are described. A list of criteria for a good benefits system is then constructed, and both the UK's existing system and a Citizen's Income are evaluated against the criteria. The book discusses effects on the labour market, affordability, funding mechanisms, political feasibility, who should receive a Citizen's Income, alternative proposals, and the problems that a Citizen's Income would not solve. The book concludes that the significant benefits that a Citizen's Income would offer to our society and economy mean that a substantial pilot project, and then full implementation, are essential.Less

Money for everyone : Why we need a citizen's income

Malcolm Torry

Published in print: 2013-06-27

A Citizen's Income (sometimes called a Basic Income, a Universal Grant, a Social Dividend, or a Universal Benefit) is an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual as a right of citizenship. To replace some of the UK current tax system and much of the benefits system with a Citizen's Income would offer important positive benefits for society and the economy. Means-tested benefits are withdrawn as earnings rise, but a Citizen's Income would not be, thus making it easier for individuals and households to increase their net income. Current means-tested benefits pay less to a couple than to two individuals, thus imposing difficult decisions and intrusive investigations on claimants, whereas a Citizen's Income, because paid to each individual, would not interfere with people's relationships. The book employs thought-experiments to introduce a Citizen's Income, offers historical context, asks why some reform proposals succeed and some fail, and explores different ways of implementing a Citizen's Income. Existing universal benefits and recent pilot projects are described. A list of criteria for a good benefits system is then constructed, and both the UK's existing system and a Citizen's Income are evaluated against the criteria. The book discusses effects on the labour market, affordability, funding mechanisms, political feasibility, who should receive a Citizen's Income, alternative proposals, and the problems that a Citizen's Income would not solve. The book concludes that the significant benefits that a Citizen's Income would offer to our society and economy mean that a substantial pilot project, and then full implementation, are essential.